Version 2: Critical Connections

In Version 1, you and your partner selected eight core sources and two artworks or projects. Continue working with those selections and the division of research you already established.

Complete the steps below in order.

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Step 1: Confirm your Version 1 sources and artwork or project

Return to the eight core sources and two artworks or projects you selected in Version 1. Take into account the instructor’s feedback on Version 1 as you confirm your selections.

Continue with the four sources assigned to you. Together, your pair should still have:

Source type	Partner A	Partner B	Total
Course readings	1	1	2
Additional academic sources	1	1	2
Primary artist sources	1	1	2
Critical or contextual sources	1	1	2
Total	4	4	8

Each partner must read, watch, or listen to their four assigned sources in full.

You do not need to find new sources unless a Version 1 source no longer supports your research direction or does not provide enough reliable information for the project.

Also continue with the artwork or project assigned to you for individual research:

• Partner A researches one work.
• Partner B researches one work.
• Partner C researches one work if you are in a group of three students.

Keep the Version 1 artwork selections if they continue to provide enough evidence for your research direction. Replace a work only if it no longer supports the project’s direction or if reliable information and documentation are not available.

Before moving on: Confirm the 4 Version 1 sources + 1 Version 1 artwork/project you will continue researching in this stage.

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Step 2: Take notes on your artwork or project

Start with the artwork or project before working through your sources. Examining the work closely will give you specific evidence to use when you encounter concepts and arguments in the readings and other sources.

Examine your assigned artwork or project carefully. Record the following information:

Find	Record
Identification	Complete title and year
Format	Medium, materials, technologies, duration, dimensions, or format
Context	Where, when, why, and for whom the work was produced, presented, performed, exhibited, or published
Audience experience	What the audience sees, hears, encounters, or does
Artistic approach	Important methods, techniques, materials, technologies, or decisions
Themes and questions	Ideas, issues, or questions addressed by the work
Documentation	Available images, video, audio, exhibition records, or other documentation
Media information	Captions, creator or photographer credits, source links, image descriptions, and available rights information

Before moving on: Check that your notes give you enough specific evidence from the artwork to begin connecting it to ideas from your sources.

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Step 3: Take notes on your 4 sources

Now return to your four assigned Version 1 sources.

Work through one source at a time. As you read, watch, or listen, use your artwork notes to help you identify concepts and arguments that are relevant to the work.

For each source, record:

• the main argument or useful information;
• 2–3 relevant concepts;
• a useful passage, example, or quotation, including page numbers or timestamps;
• specific connections to your assigned artwork;
• connections to other sources, when relevant; and
• a question, limitation, disagreement, or missing perspective.

When making a connection to the artwork, identify what specific evidence from the artwork led you to make that connection. This could include a material, method, technology, image, interaction, spatial decision, audience experience, or other artistic choice.

Repeat this process until you have notes for all four sources.

Before moving on: You should have notes for all 4 sources and be able to identify specific places where ideas from your research connect to evidence from the artwork.

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Step 4: Make 2–3 preliminary critical connections

Now bring your source research and artwork research together.

Write 2–3 preliminary critical connections.

For each connection, include:

1. Concept: What concept comes from one of your assigned sources?
2. Artwork evidence: What specific part of the artwork or project connects to it?
3. Another source: Can another assigned source extend, complicate, or challenge the connection?
4. Your thinking: What initial interpretation, question, or tension does this connection raise?

Example

• Testimony and damage-centred representation: Tuck explains that communities are often represented mainly through pain or trauma (pp. 409–413). This idea may connect to El Tendedero, where many anonymous accounts of harassment are displayed together and individual experiences become evidence of a shared problem. A question to explore is whether making these stories public creates solidarity or raises concerns about consent and how the stories continue to circulate. *

These connections are preliminary. You will compare and develop them with your partner in Stage 2.

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Step 5: Update your 4 annotated bibliography entries

Do not start a separate annotated bibliography. You are developing the bibliography from Version 1 by checking the references and replacing or revising the initial descriptions with more specific annotations based on your completed research.

For each of your four sources:

1. Check the APA reference. Make sure the citation is complete and correctly formatted in APA style, and check that the link works.
2. Update the annotation. Use what you learned from reading, watching, or listening to the complete source to revise the description you prepared in Version 1.
3. Write 75–100 words per source.

Each updated annotation must:

• identify the source’s main argument or useful information;
• explain how the source connects to the artist or selected artwork; and
• identify an important limitation, bias, or missing perspective, when relevant.

Use this format:

APA reference and link	Source type	Annotation
Complete APA reference and accessible link	Course reading, academic, primary artist, or critical/contextual	75–100 words addressing the required points

Your annotation is not a copy of your research notes. Use your notes to write a concise explanation of what the source contributes to the project.

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Step 6: Prepare your individual notes PDF

Put your individual research into one PDF.

You may organize it using headings, bullet points, tables, annotations, diagrams, or another clear format.

Final check

Before exporting, confirm:

• My full name and student number are included.
• I have research notes for all 4 sources.
• I have notes for my 1 assigned artwork/project.
• I have 2–3 preliminary critical connections.
• I have 4 annotated bibliography entries.
• Each annotation is 75–100 words.
• I included a text explanation for any diagram or image needed to understand my notes.

Export and share

Name your file:

Lastname-Firstname_P1_Critical-Connections-Notes.pdf

Export a text-based PDF, not scanned pages or screenshots.

Share a copy with your partner.

In Stage 2, bring the individual research together. Compare what you found, revise the research questions from Version 1, develop a working thesis and critical-connections outline, and combine your research into one collaborative document.

Complete the steps below in order.

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Step 1: Share and compare your research

Bring together the individual research you completed in Stage 1.

Each partner must explain their four assigned sources, artwork notes, and preliminary critical connections to the other partner.

Together:

• compare the main arguments and concepts from all eight sources;
• identify ideas or concepts that appear across several sources;
• note important agreements, disagreements, or differences between sources;
• connect these ideas to specific evidence from the two artworks or projects;
• compare the preliminary critical connections you each developed in Stage 1; and
• decide which connections are most useful for developing the profile.

Before moving on: Both partners should understand how the eight sources and two artworks or projects connect to the research direction.

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Step 2: Revise your research questions

Return to the main and supporting research questions from Version 1.

Revise them using what you now know from:

• the eight core sources;
• your Stage 1 preliminary critical connections;
• the two artworks or projects; and
• questions, tensions, or problems that remain unresolved.

Your pair must prepare:

• 1 revised main research question; and
• 1–2 revised supporting questions.

Remove or revise questions that are too broad, factual, or no longer connected to the project. Take into account the instructor’s feedback.

Before moving on: Check that the questions can be investigated through your selected artworks and research rather than answered only with general information.

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Step 3: Write your working thesis

Using your revised main research question, write a 75–125-word working thesis.

The working thesis is your pair’s current answer to the main research question. It is not a final conclusion.

Include:

• a clear statement about the artist’s practice;
• the main focus of the profile;
• the artistic strategies, methods, or concerns that support your position;
• connections to both selected artworks; and
• an important tension, question, or limitation, when relevant.

The working thesis is provisional. You may revise it as your analysis develops in later versions.

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Step 4: Build your critical-connections outline

Now plan how you will support and develop the working thesis in Version 3.

Use bullet points for this outline. You are not writing the full critical analysis yet.

Organize the outline into the following sections.

Introduction

Use bullet points to identify:

• your main research question;
• your 1–2 supporting questions;
• your working thesis;
• the focus of the critical analysis;
• the two concepts that will organize the analysis;
• the two artworks or projects that will provide the main examples; and
• any context the reader will need before the analysis begins.

The introduction should establish what you are investigating and your current response to that investigation.

Critical Connection 1: Concept + Artwork 1

Use bullet points to plan the first critical connection.

Include:

• the main concept, question, or tension;
• a relevant passage or argument from one course reading;
• how the second course reading supports, extends, or challenges that idea;
• another source that adds context or a different interpretation;
• specific evidence from Artwork 1;
• a relevant method, material, technology, or artistic decision;
• your interpretation of how this evidence connects to the concept; and
• relevant citations, quotations, page numbers, or timestamps.

Critical Connection 2: Concept + Artwork 2

Use bullet points to plan the second critical connection.

Include:

• the main concept, question, or tension;
• relevant evidence from the course readings;
• another source that adds context or a different interpretation;
• specific evidence from Artwork 2;
• a relevant method, material, technology, or artistic decision;
• your interpretation of how this evidence connects to the concept;
• how this connection differs from, extends, or complicates Critical Connection 1; and
• relevant citations, quotations, page numbers, or timestamps.

Add Critical Connection 3: Concept + Artwork 3 if you’re in a group of three students.

Conclusion

Use bullet points to identify:

• the main connection between the two artworks and concepts;
• what the artworks help you understand, question, or reconsider;
• an important tension, limitation, or unresolved question; and
• how your analysis supports, develops, or complicates the working thesis.

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Step 5: Complete an ethics and representation check

As you develop the outline:

• use evidence for claims about the artist, artworks, communities, and contexts;
• do not assume the artist’s identity, intentions, beliefs, or relationships with communities;
• do not reduce an artist or community to trauma, discrimination, or identity categories;
• separate the artist’s statements from your interpretation and other writers’ arguments; and
• use quotation marks and citations when using wording from sources, gallery texts, captions, or artist statements.

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Step 6: Write the artist or collective profile

As the final research task for this stage, write a 100–150-word artist or collective profile connected to your research focus.

Include:

• relevant location and cultural, social, political, or historical context;
• media, materials, technologies, or methods connected to your research; and
• why the artist or collective is relevant to your working thesis.

Include only information that helps the reader understand the direction of your research.

Do not write a complete biography or career summary. Focus on information that is relevant to the artworks, concepts, and questions you are investigating.

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Step 7: Prepare the collaborative PDF

For this week’s submission, you and your partner will prepare one PDF together.

This PDF collects the research and planning you completed in Stage 2. You are submitting research notes and an outline at this stage. You do not need to write the full critical analysis yet.

Your collaborative PDF must include:

• Both partners’ full names and student numbers.
• The revised main research question.
• The 1–2 revised supporting questions.
• The 75–125-word working thesis.
• The Introduction section of the critical-connections outline in bullet points.
• Critical Connection 1 in bullet points.
• Critical Connection 2 in bullet points.
• The Conclusion section of the critical-connections outline in bullet points.
• The 100–150-word artist or collective profile.
• A text explanation for any other diagram or image needed to understand your notes.

You may organize the PDF using headings, bullet points, tables, annotations, diagrams, or another clear format.

Before exporting

Check that:

• Both partners have reviewed the complete document.
• The document has a clear heading order.
• The text can be selected and searched.
• Links are clickable.
• Images have the required identification, credits, and text alternatives.

Name your file:

P1_V2-Critical-Connections.pdf

Export a text-based PDF, not scanned pages or screenshots.

Step 1: Save your high-quality images and media information

Make sure your pair has saved the highest-quality image files available for:

• the artist or collective profile image;
• Artwork or Project 1;
• Artwork or Project 2; and
• any additional artwork documentation that may be useful for later versions of the project.

Keep the original image files and their source information organized so you can use them when developing the multimodal profile for the final submission.

When available, save:

• the highest-quality version from a reliable source;
• the creator or photographer credit;
• the source link; and
• available rights or permissions information.

You do not need to upload these image files for Version 2. Keep them organized for the next next steps of the project.

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Step 2: Prepare your Pecha Kucha slide

During the next lecture, each pair will give a one-minute Pecha Kucha presentation. Presentations will take place one after another, without questions or class discussion.

Prepare one slide containing:

• the selected artist or collective;
• the working thesis in one or two lines;
• images of both selected artworks or projects;
• the two central concepts guiding the critical connections; and
• the title, year, and image credit for each artwork.

Slide format and design

• Submit one .JPG or .PNG image.
• Use a 16:9 format. The recommended size is 1920 × 1080 px.
• Use large, readable text and strong contrast between text and background.
• Keep text brief.
• Do not place important text over a visually complex image.
• Make both selected artworks clearly visible.
• Include the title, year, and image credit for each artwork.

Name the file:

P1_V2-Critical-Connections-Slide.jpg

or

P1_V2-Critical-Connections-Slide.png

Choose one speaker who did not speak in Version 1. If presenting verbally creates an access barrier, contact the instructor in advance to arrange an accessible alternative that meets the same learning goals.